Champagne house Ruinart has been collaborating with artists and designers for a few years, joining forces with creative talent to bring to life the inspiration and history behind their products. After working with Maarten Baas, Hervé Van der Straeten, Nendo and Piet Hein Eek – among others – the company enlisted Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf to create a body of work which adorned a dedicated champagne bar during Frieze Masters. The photographer immersed himself in the house of Ruinart, and was invited to create an expressive oeuvre that embodies the spirit of Ruinart and celebrates the 120th anniversary of their first collaboration, with Czech artist Alphonse Mucha in 1896.
Better known for his sleek, staged and intricately produced images, Olaf’s initial idea was more in line with his extant work, but a visit to the company’s cellars changed his mind, he explains. ‘When I was in the cellars, I noticed something I had not seen before: there were drawings, signs of nature, signatures carved in the stone, machines, bottles, so I started to photograph these elements, isolate them.’ Olaf drew from his journalistic background and produced a series of black and white images that highlight these traces of human life.
Olaf sees a strong connection between the light and dark dichotomy of photography with what Ruinart does.
‘I returned five times into the cellars,’ says Olaf, who created the work over the course of two years, ‘each time isolating pieces, looking for references.’ Soon he found that these anonymous traces had similarities with modern and contemporary art: a series of bottle racks resembled works created by the Zero movement; other shadows on the walls (or imprecisions in the plaster), once captured reminded him of Rothko, Seurat or Damien Hirst. The collection of images is as much an exploration of his own approach as a photographer as it is a testimony of time and human passage in the Ruinart cellars. ‘I had to explore myself as well, because this was something I had never made before – [to] take a piece of wall, photograph it. I would say that is the closest I could come to my own art.’
For champagne, this is a radically different approach; a drink that is so much about light, universally thought of as gold and sparkly, is identified via a series of moody, dark images. ‘The vineyards are about light, the cellars are about darkness,’ explains Olaf, who sees a strong connection between the light and dark dichotomy of photography with what Ruinart does. ‘Photos, like champagne,' he concludes, 'need darkness to find light.’
Descending into Ruinart's cellars, Olaf drew from his journalistic background to produce a series of black and white images that highlight traces of human life
‘I returned five times into the cellars,’ says Olaf, who created the work over the course of two years, ‘each time isolating pieces, looking for references’.
The collection of images is as much an exploration of his own approach as a photographer as it is a testimony of time and human passage in the cellars
‘I had to explore myself as well, because this was something I had never made before – [to] take a piece of wall, photograph it,' says Olaf. 'I would say that is the closest I could come to my own art’
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Ruinart website
-
Year in review: top 10 furniture launches of 2024, as selected by Wallpaper* global design director Hugo MacdonaldThe furniture launches that wowed global design director Hugo Macdonald this year
-
Unboxing beauty products from 2024, as seen on the pages of Wallpaper*Wallpaper's 2024 beauty picks included Chanel lipstick, Bottega Veneta perfume and solid soap from the likes of Aesop, Celine, Diptyque, Hermès and Sisley
-
The cosiest alpine retreats to book in EuropeBrowse the Wallpaper* edit of European alpine retreats where to fully embrace the ski season
-
Inside the distorted world of artist George RouyFrequently drawing comparisons with Francis Bacon, painter George Rouy is gaining peer points for his use of classic techniques to distort the human form
-
‘I'm endlessly fascinated by the nude’: Somaya Critchlow’s intimate and confident drawings are on show in London‘Triple Threat’ at Maximillian William gallery in London is British artist Somaya Critchlow’s first show dedicated solely to drawing
-
Surrealism as feminist resistance: artists against fascism in Leeds‘The Traumatic Surreal’ at the Henry Moore Institute, unpacks the generational trauma left by Nazism for postwar women
-
Looking forward to Tate Modern’s 25th anniversary partyFrom 9-12 May 2025, Tate Modern, one of London’s most adored art museums, will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a lively weekend of festivities
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA week in the world of Wallpaper*. Here's how our editors have been entertaining themselves in the run up to Christmas
-
Love, melancholy and domesticity: Anna Calleja is a painter to watchAnna Calleja explores everyday themes in her exhibition, ‘One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night’, at Sim Smith, London
-
Ndayé Kouagou speaks the language of the chaotic social media influencer in LondonNdayé Kouagou celebrates meandering incoherence with an exhibition, ‘A Message for Everybody’, at Gathering in London
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA snowy Swiss Alpine sleepover, a design book fest in Milan, and a night with Steve Coogan in London – our editors' out-of-hours adventures this week
